Marlington Quick Strikes Lead to Leopards 34-24 Demise

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Marlington 34, Louisville 24

Dymonte Thomas ran for 285 yards and 4 touchdowns to lead the Marlington Dukes to a 34-24 win over the Louisville Leopards Friday night at Marlington Stadium. Joey Duckworth led the Leopards in completing 28 of 49 passes for 264 yards and had two scoring throws to Alex Schooley.

Thomas broke free for touchdown runs of 51, 86, 23, and the dagger a 54 yard run with 2:18 remaining that all but sealed the deal for the Dukes. Thomas was also instrumental as decoy when quarterback Shawn Kirk faked a hand-off to the Michigan-bound runningback and ran past the goal line from 25 yards out. The run gave Marlington a 24-14 lead just 31 seconds into the fourth. Kirk finished with 120 yards on 21 rushes.

The Leopards countered with a 6 play, 62 yard drive that was aided by 2 pass interference penalties against Marlington. The drive ended when Duckworth found Schooley from 9 yards out to cut the deficit to 21-17. After two plays from scrimmage, the Leopards defense forced the Dukes into a 3rd-and-8. Kirk would finish the night 1 of 6 for just 11 yards and thus the scenario favored the Leopards. On the ensuing play, Kirk skied a pss and an entanglement drew a questionable pass interference call against the Leps. Louisville finished the night with 6 penalties for 65 yards and Marlington gave up more than a football field of penalties in 13 for 127 yards. Thomas would score from 23 yards out 6 plays later to give Marlington a 27-17 lead with 4:08 remaining.

The scrappy Leopards practically duplicated their previous drive by marching 59 yards on 7 plays. Another 9 yard strike from Duckworth to Schooley completed the drive to cut the lead to 27-24. Schooley finished the evening with 7 catches for 57 yards, while Trent Ohman was the leading Leopard receiver with 10 catches for 108 yards. Louisville actually outgained Marlington in first downs 23-18, but the Dukes racked up 421 yards on 47 carries. No hand-off was bigger than Thomas’s 54 yard game-breaker just 9 ticks after the Leps made it 27-24.

In the first half, Duckworth delivered a long pass to Alex Hollifield down the right side line to set up the first Leopards points of the night. Four plays later Merrick Storlie booted home a 33 yard field goal to cut the Duke lead to 7-3. Storlie’s make was the first Leopards field goal on the road since October 8, 2010 when Jaron Lohmeyer made a 20 yard field goal at Carrollton. The Senior kicker is now 3 for 4 on the season.

The only other Leopards score came when Trey Hayford ran in a touchdown from 1 yard out. The Junior runningback has now scored a rushing touchdown in every game this season. Duckworth led all Louisville rushers with 60 yards on 15 carries.

The turning point in the contest came near the end of the third quarter. Marlington’s long-snapper rolled the ball along the grass to the punting Kirk who mishandled it for obvious reasons. Kirk picked up the ball and ran to his left and seemed destined to be tackled inside his own 20. But Kirk broke the potential tackle and launched a punt that stopped rolling all the way down at the Leopards 31. The Leopards and Dukes each turned the ball over three times. Marlington’s Jake Walker and Louisville’s Trevor Hostetler each had a pair of interceptions for their respective teams. Hostetler also had 4 catches for 46 yards on offense.

Louisville still leads the all-time series 40-5, but Marlington has now taken 2 out of the last 3 from Louisville. Last year this rivalry was supposed to decide the NBC, but then Minerva went on a perfect run. The Leopards will host the Lions next week in hopes of rewriting the script.

UP NEXT: The Leopards will next host the Minerva Lions on Friday, September 21 at 7:00 PM. JV Will host Marlington on Saturday, September 15 at 10:00 AM and the Freshman will travel to Wadsworth to take on the Grizzlies on Thursday, September 20 at 5:00 PM.